Things Left Unsaid
by khaleesis
Summary: ONESHOT: Draco's been secretly in love with Hermione Granger since the third year.  Four years after graduation, he meets up with her in a supermarket and realizes some things are better left unsaid.


**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.**

_**A/N: I sincerely apologize for the hiatus! School's been taking a lot out of me and everything. I have now realized that being a freshman is not all it's cracked up to be. Mostly because my school is horrible and UNfun. Please enjoy this (: I apologize if it just goes on and on and on... I wrote it during class one day.**_

* * *

I sat in the Slytherin boy's dormitory looking around for the very last time.

"Draco, are you coming down? We're going to miss breakfast."

"I'm coming," I called. I got up slowly and looked around some more, memorizing the features of the dorms.

The deep, emerald curtains with the silver embroidery, the emerald green silk sheets. There wouldn't be much about this school that I would miss, actually. I wasn't sure why I stalled in the dormitories… but something made me stop and look around for the last time in my life. I grabbed my trunk and lugged it down the stairs to the common room. I took one last look around the green tinted common room and looked around for Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Blaise.

Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini were sitting on the armchairs, waiting for me to come down from the dormitory.

"It's about time," Pansy said, "Let's hurry up and eat so we can leave this wretched school for good. Crabbe and Goyle have already gone down to the Great Hall."

I nodded and dragged my trunk with her up the stairs from the dungeon to the Entrance Hall. We left our trunks there and walked into the Great Hall.

Today was the last day of school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Graduation day for the seventh years was three days from now.

This would be my last breakfast in the Great Hall.

I know that this school was a wretched place for me… but it was the only place to get away. My dad is a Death Eater so obviously he was never home, off doing some sort of work for the Dark Lord. Mum was very protective of me, though… even if she was working with the Dark Lord, too.

We walked across the Great Hall to the Slytherin table. Crabbe and Goyle were there already, with their plates piled high.

"Gosh, Crabbe, care to leave some for anyone else?" Pansy asked, sitting down and placing bacon on her plate. I sat and picked on a piece of toast.

"Draco? Is everything alright?" Pansy asked.

"Its fine," I said, "It's the last day of school and I'm dying to get home."

"So are most of us, believe me, Draco," she said, "I can't believe we're getting out of here."

She started to go on and on about something else but I didn't listen very much. I was too busy looking through the Great Hall for someone else. I scoped through every table to see where she was at and I found her sitting at the Gryffindor table, her face red with tear tracks down her cheeks. She was crying and laughing with Potter and Weasley.

Hermione Granger.

Little did she know that I'd, actually, come to like her quite a bit. Sure, she was a bit annoying when she corrected you about certain things and the way she seemed to know _everything_ about anything was kind of creepy. But she was still, to me, the prettiest girl at Hogwarts.

I couldn't bring myself to remember when exactly the feelings had started to change… but I knew that they had. I had started seeing her in a different way and as she got older, her hair seemed to grow less bushy and prettier. I started to realize how brown her eyes were and how pretty her smile was.

I desperately wanted to tell her… to get these thoughts off my chest because I was hoping that she might at least return these feelings. Maybe I'd tell her today… right before we got off the train.

"Will all the students please make their way to the Entrance Hall?" Professor McGonagall proclaimed, "The carriages are waiting."

I saw Hermione get up and run with Harry and Ron to the professors' table. They shook hands with all the teachers there and Hagrid crushed them into a giant hug.

Pansy grabbed my hand and pulled me out to the Entrance Hall to wait for a carriage to bring us to Hogsmeade Station.

"What's wrong with you, Draco?" she asked, "I thought you'd be glad to be rid of this wretched place we've called school for the past seven years."

"I am," I said, "I just… there's going to be no place for escape for me anymore. My mother will be protective as always, my father will have higher expectations than _ever_ now that I'm of age. Things are going to be hard, Pansy."

"Don't worry, Draco," she said, "You'll get through it… and maybe you and I can get together sometime."

I smiled at her and got into a carriage. Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle followed me in and they shut the door.

OoOoOoOoO

We arrived at Hogsmeade Station and got into the Hogwarts Express headed for Kings Cross Station.

The ride back was the longest train ride I'd ever experienced. It was horrible, too. I was trying to make up my mind, whether I wanted to tell Hermione or not. But Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle kept bothering me… asking what was wrong.

I could never tell them what was wrong.

I sighed and stood up.

"I need some air," I said. I opened the compartment door and walked out, bumping into Hermione herself.

"Oh, excuse me, Malfoy," she said.

"Sorry, Granger," I said. She swerved around me and started walking down the corridor again.

_Tell her now!_

"Granger, wait," I said. She turned around sharply and looked at me quizzically.

"I… I, um…" I mumbled.

Why was this so hard for me? I was a _Malfoy_, for crying out loud!

"Can't think of any English, now can we?" she said.

"Shut it, Granger," I said.

She turned around and continued walking down the corridor. I opened the compartment door and sat back down.

OoOoOoOoO

We reached Platform 9 ¾ just at dusk. My mother was waiting for me outside the train. I looked over at Hermione hugging her parents and saying goodbye to Potter and Weasley.

_I don't think she'd ever feel the same way,_ I thought to myself, _why bother when you're just going to get shot down?_

I guess some things were better left unsaid.

* * *

**_Several Years Later_**

I walked down the aisle of the Muggle supermarket trying to find the tomatoes.

Sarah could just get the tomatoes herself! How much energy would it take to just apparate to the supermarket and buy a few tomatoes _herself_?

"I don't know _why_ I'm doing this," I said, "When I could just conjure up some tomatoes myself. _She _could conjure the tomatoes herself."

I grumbled to myself some more as I walked down the next aisle.

"Where do they even keep the stupid things?" I said to myself, "I mean… it's not too hard to find Muggle tomatoes, is it?"

"Talk to yourself often?" came a familiar voice from behind.

I whipped around to see a slightly familiar head of bushy brown hair standing behind me.

"Hey, Malfoy," she said.

Hermione Granger.

"Wow, Granger," I said, "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes it has," she said, "And if you're looking for tomatoes, may I suggest going to the fruits and vegetables?"

"Yeah, well… where's that at?"

She laughed and grabbed my arm, pulling me back towards a colder area of the supermarket.

An electric surge shot up my arm at her touch.

"Here is where you find the fruits and vegetables in the supermarket," she said.

I looked around and saw a red, round object. I took it in my hand.

"It's rather hard for a tomato, isn't it?" I asked.

"Draco," she laughed, "That's an apple… tomatoes are over here."

"I knew that…" I said.

I grabbed a tomato and started looking it over for bruises or anything.

"How've you been, Granger?"

"Since graduation… or more recently?"

"Both."

"Well, since graduation, it's been alright," she said, "I've gotten a job at the Ministry."

"And recently?"

"Well, let's just say that I've been better."

I nodded and placed a tomato in the plastic bag.

"How've you been?" she asked, "I heard you've opened up your own business?"

"Yeah," I said, "It's nothing big, really."

"That's not what it seems like!" she said, "To me, you're this huge millionaire who's just _rolling_ in Galleons."

"But I'm not _happy_," I said, "Trust me, I've seen better days."

"You should do what you need to be happy," she said, "maybe you need to get something off your chest… or do something good for someone else. Money isn't always the key to happiness."

"I know that… well, I do _now._ I've got all the money in the world now, I've got a girlfriend who's a supermodel! But I'm not _happy_. At least… not as happy as I would have been if… never mind."

"Well, maybe you just need someone to talk to," she said, looking at the oranges, "I mean… I can listen now if you need me to. That's what colleagues are for, I guess… like friends."

"Hermione, I'm in love with you."

She had inhaled to start another sentence when the breath blew out of her with a very audible _whoosh!_ and she stood, wide eyed, staring at me.

"I'm sorry… for a minute there it sounded like you _just said_ that you were in love with me."

"I did," I said, "I've _been_ in love with you… since about third year."

Her mouth opened wide and she stared at me in shock.

"Draco," she started, "I –"

"I'm not finished," I said, "I'm in love with you… I've been in love with you and I feel so incredibly stupid because I was planning on telling you on the last day at Hogwarts when we bumped into each other on the train… but I chickened out and you _never knew_! But I carried this with me for four years! And maybe, if I had told you, I wouldn't be bumping into you at a supermarket buying tomatoes for my girlfriend, who I _honestly_ don't love. You'd be the one cooking at my house sending me out to buy _you_ tomatoes, which I _really_ wouldn't mind doing if it was for _you_."

She was quiet for several minutes, letting what I had just said sink it. My heart was in my throat the whole time.

"Draco... the truth is that," she said, "I've, honestly, really liked you."

My heart nearly jumped out of my mouth.

"But… I'm married," she said.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

Married. She was _married._

Way to go, Draco.

"But, I think you're really sweet for telling me," she said, kissing my cheek, "And, maybe if you told me sooner… we could have been something."

I watched her walk to the checkout counter and pay for the items in her cart and she walked out. I walked over to a cash register and paid for the three tomatoes and walked out of the supermarket.

After four years, I had finally gathered the courage to talk to her and tell her how I felt… and I was two or three years too late. Hermione was married now and she probably had a child and everything.

Maybe things _were_ better off left unsaid.


End file.
